Family Ties
by laniew1
Summary: What if… Sonny found out that Olivia was pregnant with his kid instead of lying to him. What happens when that boy goes missing and the lives that Sonny Corinthos is living are forced to merge into one.  Pairings: Sonny/Oliva, past Sonny/Carly
1. Chapter 1

What if… Sonny found out that Olivia was pregnant with his kid instead of lying to him. What happens when that boy goes missing and the lives that Sonny Corinthos is living are forced to merge into one.

Family Ties - 1

There's a picture by Sonny's bed that he doesn't talk about; if she manages to get the question out he doesn't answer her; he's never once identified the woman and young boy in the picture.

Carly gives up asking after a while, whoever the woman is, whoever the boy is; Sonny is with her and Michael now. They don't matter.

But it's still a burning question, the picture has always been there, when they shared a bed she'd look over and there'd be another woman staring back at her. A solemn expression on her face but knowing eyes.

Like she'd been where Carly had been and knew things she didn't know.

She wonders if this unnamed woman and the boy she's holding close are the reason that Sonny wouldn't marry her.

"You don't know?" she asks Jason. Jason is as close to Sonny as anyone is. He trusts Jason in ways that he's never trusted her or Brenda or anyone that's come before or will come after.

She thinks it's because Jason will pick up a gun and kill for him, with no questions asked.

"It's a woman and a kid," Jason says, he glances at the picture briefly then looks at the door.

"I'll put it back before he comes home," Carly says, she rolls her eyes. She's moved the picture before, placed it face down so she wouldn't have those faces staring at her while she was trying to nap with Michael in a big bed that she's not allowed in any more.

**OF + SC = DF**

Sonny normally cooks, the four of them sitting around the table and its normal simple food. A pasta, a bread, some sort of wine and a glass of juice or milk for Michael.

They're family.

They talk about inconsequential things; when Michael lets get them a word in edgewise. Michael is ten and he chatters about things going on at school and friends and who said what when and how his classes are going.

Jason doesn't normally say anything, though he'll respond to a direct query if asked by Michael or Sonny. Sonny asks questions and seems to know the answers before Michael utters them. She doesn't ask if he has people watching Michael at school, he probably does and she doesn't want to know.

**OF + SC = DF**

Michael is finishing up homework at the table, Sonny and Jason had disappeared to talk about things that they don't want her to know about.

She tries to not take exception; because she's not some mob moll, she's not some bimbo tramp or Brenda with a wire.

She thinks she's more then proved her faithfulness to Sonny and the life that he's chosen.

The knock at the door startles her, Sonny hadn't mentioned expecting anyone and for someone to be knocking at the door they would have had to get by the guards.

She glances in the direction of the office, sees no sign of Sonny or Jason appearing and sighs and goes to answer it herself.

Michael is looking up from his homework and she makes a face at him before she swings the door open.

The woman from the pictures is standing there. It's been raining for almost two weeks now and she's dripping water on the hallway carpet. Her eyes are red and swollen.

Max is standing behind her and Carly doesn't even _know_ what to call the expression on his face.

The woman blinks at her and makes an effort to stand up straight, fingers going to her hair and rubbing across her eyes.

"I was looking for Sonny Corinthos?" she asks. Her voice is slightly accented, probably from somewhere down by the city or Jersey then.

A knot makes itself known in her stomach, curling up and around itself until it's a hard ball and Carly has to force herself to swallow.

"Sonny?" Carly calls, she doesn't project her voice too loudly, she almost doesn't want Sonny to hear her. The woman doesn't look dangerous, just devastated. Like her entire life is in shambles and Carly is most definitely positive that whatever else she does or doesn't know, she doesn't want this woman and whatever her problems are in her home even if it _isn't_ exactly her home anymore.

"Mom?" Michael appears next to her and Carly loops an arm over his shoulders and leans down.

"Go up to your room, lock the door," she breathes into his ear.

Michael looks from her to the woman in the doorway to Max still standing like a worthless lump behind her.

Sonny comes out of the office, "Carly, did you need something?" he sounds annoyed and irritated all in equal measure then he stops dead in his tracks as soon as he sees the woman.

"Olivia?" he sounds disbelieving and shocked and the woman, _Olivia_, just sobs and crumples.

**OF + SC = DF**

Sonny doesn't make it to her time but Max does, his arms loop around her and she doesn't hit the ground just sags in his arms.

Carly is standing there, hand on the door and Sonny can see a thousand questions racing over her face. She thankfully doesn't ask any of them because she knows him well enough now to know that he wouldn't _answer_ any of them anyway.

Max half carries Olivia in and Carly steps back and away, closing the door while she watches Sonny go to his knees and pull Olivia into his arms.

Olivia is sobbing, huge, desperate sobs and there's a keening noise coming from her throat.

He cups her face in his hands, presses his lips to her forehead, her skin is cold and wet and he tugs her into his arms heedless of the fact that she's drenched.

He ignores Carly's staring, ignores Jason appearing in the doorway wondering why he hasn't come back. Ignores everything but Olivia being here when she _shouldn't_ be.

"Where's Dante?" he whispers and he can feel every muscle in her body give and she's only supported by virtue of Sonny not being able to let her go.

Olivia is supposed to be with Dante, somewhere safe while this played out however it did.

"He," her face is pressed to his shoulder and he can feel her tears soaking through the shirt he's wearing. "Someone took him, someone took our baby, Sonny," she sobs.

**OF + SC = DF**

It takes almost an hour, he can feel the seconds ticking away; whoever had taken his son getting further and further away from him by the moment.

He settles Olivia in his bed, gives her a pill and supports her back while she swallows it down with a glass of water.

She's mostly stopped crying but he thinks that's because the shock has finally settled in.

"Tell me what happened," he says. He sits on the edge of the bed, one hand linked with hers. He doesn't wear a wedding band, it would raise too many questions if he did; but he put the one that is around Olivia's finger there when she turned 18.

It hadn't been a shotgun wedding, but only because he'd been living with the Falconeri's for two years and he and Olivia had been married in all but name only from the moment her older brother had tracked him down, punched him in the face then told him Olivia was pregnant.

"Someone took him," she says again, her voice is dull and he cradles her against him. He doesn't need to look to see that Carly and Jason are hovering in the doorway, doesn't need to look to know that Max is waiting for instructions.

"I need a bit more then that," he says gently. Quietly.

"He…" she rubs her forehead against the line of his jaw, fingers tightening on his. "He's been unhappy, angry. We got into a fight about the guards and his ditching them when he feels like they're oppressing his freedom of movement."

"They're there for your protection, for _his_ protection."

"I know, he knows that too," her voice breaks a little. "He just, you know that girl that we thought he was seeing? She wouldn't go out with him anymore because of the guards. And Frankie DelVecchio pretty much told him the same thing."

"I thought we agreed he wasn't going to have anything to do with the DelVecchio boy," Sonny says. He remembers a long two hour phone call where Dante insisted that they were just friends and declared that he would never, ever, in a million years forgive them if Sonny and Olivia decided that they couldn't see each other anymore.

"He's sixteen, he told us what we wanted to hear and then did the exact opposite," Olivia mutters. "You remember being sixteen, don't you?"

He does.

At sixteen he'd been in a bad place and headed towards a worse one. Until fate had stepped in, punched him in the face and announced that one broken condom had resulted in a baby and that it expected Sonny to step up to the plate and take both responsibility for his actions and be a man in doing so.

"Tell me what happened," he asks softly.

"We had a compromise, the guards would still be there, but Vito would take him to school and pick him up and it was all going okay, but then… he ditched school and his guards and we're pretty sure he was going to meet up with Frankie but…"

"But?"

"He never _made_ it there," Olivia says. "Frankie gave up waiting on him and when school was supposed to be over he came to the garage to ask Dante what was up and…"

"When? How long?" Sonny asks. He's trying to draw up a to do list in his head. It keeps getting broken up by the fact that Dante is missing.

"Yesterday," Olivia says.

"_Yesterday_? And I'm just finding out about this now?"

"Everyone in the _neighborhood_ is looking for him, there's uniforms and your guys and they're all combing the street looking for him. I didn't want… if he was just hiding out with the girl that he was apparently _not _seeing or that Frankie had maybe just missed him, I didn't want you to freak out and…" she starts crying again, silent tears streaking down her cheeks and he kisses her.

A soft press of his lips to hers and he wraps both arms around her. Holding her tightly to his chest, murmuring soothing nonsense in her ear, against her skin.

He can hear Carly muttering at Jason in the door and he doesn't look over, just holds Olivia until she falls into a restless sleep then repositions her on the bed. Tucking a quilt around her that her mother had made for him when he realized that he wouldn't be going home anytime soon.

He stands, steps away from the bed and turns. Carly and Jason are staring at him and he doesn't have time for the questions in their eyes, he just stalks past them and pulls out his cell phone.

Two taps for memory 6, "we've got a problem."

**OF + SC = DF**


	2. Chapter 2

**Family Ties – 2**

It's dark and his head and arm hurt.

It takes long minutes and he realizes that he's on a concrete ground, that he's in a room with no windows.

That his arm is either really messed up or actually broken.

The side of his face hurts like he got punched and he touches it with fingers not attached to the arm that is throbbing at him.

Definitely punched.

He takes a deep breath and forces himself into a sitting position.

He can just make out the shape of a door directly in front of him, there's no light in the room but he can see a hint of light just around the bottom edge of the door.

"Hello?" he calls, he winces and has a flash of memory of someone wrapping an arm around his neck. He'll have bruises there then too.

"Is anyone there?"

No one answers.

**OF + SC = DF**

There's a knock at the door and it's something that Sonny has been expecting so he squeezes her fingers and kisses the back of her hand, then leaves his perch by Olivia's side and goes downstairs.

Jason is already pulling the door open and Mac Scorpio is standing there looking both pissed off and official.

"Jason, why don't you take Carly and Michael home," Sonny says. Mac arches an eyebrow at him and Jason looks back and forth between them.

"I don't think…" Jason starts.

"It's fine, I asked him to come."

**OF + SC = DF**

He waits until he hears the door click shut then crosses the room to lock it.

"I'm assuming that Olivia made it here?" Mac asks.

"She's upstairs," Sonny says.

"And what did the lovely Mrs. Corinthos think of Carly?" Mac asks. He's got a bit of a smirk on his face, Sonny wants to punch him, he thinks it would help alleviate some of the pent up rage and fear that is throbbing under his skin aching for release.

"Olivia knows about Carly," Sonny says, he pours drinks, leaves a glass there for Mac to either take or not take.

Olivia knows _everything _about Carly; including the fact that while Sonny might claim Michael as his son but that he is, in reality, not.

Sonny doesn't want to think of what Olivia would have done if Michael had _actually_ been his, he _definitely_ would not have a wife any longer and he might not even have a son either. In this, Dante would side with his mother.

"Tell me what we know."

"The Zacchara's have been watching him; the guards noticed them about two weeks ago."

"And no one thought this was something that I needed to know about?"

"Because they weren't _doing_ anything, just watching. The guards were watching them, and watching Dante and…"

"And yet someone still managed to walk off with my boy," Sonny is seething. He needs to calm down because decking Mac isn't going to solve anything besides maybe make him feel better.

"The Zacchara's have people helping search for him, which means either they don't know or they don't want to take the fall for having grabbed him when they don't have him."

"So they still think my covers good," Sonny doesn't ask. Anthony Zacchara would have declared war already if he knew what Sonny's ultimate goal was.

He's not a cop; not really, the fact that he's even doing what he does is in no thanks to Deke. Deke had pretty much soured him on law enforcement as a whole for a really long time.

But the thought of his boy, his _son _being raised in an environment where he would have been expected to pick up a gun or the reins at some point… that was unacceptable. Dante is now older then Sonny was when Sonny went to work for Frank Smith.

Dante maybe has a future.

"Dante's not the only boy to go missing," Mac says, he says it softly. Like he's afraid of spooking or startling Sonny.

"What?"

"Dante's the fifth boy in a month to go missing in Bensonhurst," Mac says.

Sonny's mouth goes dry and there's a pit forming in his stomach. "Where are the other boys now?"

He knows the answer to this, it can't be a good one.

"The first two showed up dead about a week back, the other two, and Dante… they're still missing."

**OF + SC = DF**

He knows that Anthony is not involved, that doesn't mean that he can just leave the fact that Anthony had people watching Dante go.

The fact that he even had people _watching_ Dante spoke of an intent to do _something_ and that is unacceptable. If Sonny ignores the fact that he had people watching Dante it would be shown as a sign that he bowed and that Anthony's behavior is acceptable.

He shows up on his doorstep with Jason and Milo and Max, the fact that he doesn't walk in with guns drawn is the only sign that he knows that the Zacchara's don't have Dante.

They might know something though, they've been watching, they might have seen something that his guards and the police missed.

"Mr. Corinthos, how lovely of you to stop by," Anthony is all smiles. Standing slightly behind him are his guards, off to one side is his son. Johnny Zacchara is eighteen and watching him with narrowed eyes.

"This isn't a social visit," Sonny states. Jason stays beside him; Milo and Max stay at the door.

"You had people watching my son," he says, he plants his hands on the desk and leans forward. Anthony just grins at him.

"It pays to know your competition," Anthony says. "No one else even _knew_ that you had a wife and child secreted away."

"And how did you find out?"

Anthony smiles enigmatically at him. "I knew the right questions to ask it appears."

"My son is missing," Sonny says in short clipped tones. "My son and four other boys were taken out of their neighborhood," he stares at Anthony and watches as the smile drops from his face and a sober expression replaces it.

"I'm aware," Anthony looks away, looks at his son and Johnny just looks back.

"Two of the boys are dead," Sonny says. "Did you know that? Two of those five boys are dead and I want to know if your guards saw anything that would help us find Dante."

"No concern for the other two?" Anthony asks.

"You're a father, if whoever this scumbag is had your son, would you be concerned about the other boys, or would you be concerned about yours?"

Anthony looks down at his desk, then shifts back, taking a packet of pictures from the top drawer of his desk.

"There's been a man watching the school," he points at a picture, the top most one and it's an older man, mid-forties and balding. "We only even noticed him because he approached Dante and one of his friends several times in a weeks time span."

"He didn't…" Dante knows better, Sonny and Olivia have done stranger danger and what to do if someone he didn't know approached him or tried to touch him in a way that he didn't feel comfortable with.

"He walked away, he didn't seem overly alarmed," Anthony stares at him.

Sonny picks up the picture, a clear shot of the man that might possibly have Dante, have two other boys that are faceless and nameless only because Sonny can't worry about anyone besides Dante right now and wouldn't let Mac tell him who they are.

**OF + SC = DF**

Sonny makes copies of the picture and he gives one to Mac who thankfully doesn't ask him where he got it from, and he distributes the rest.

They have a face and they don't have a name but Sonny is sure that whoever this guy is Mac is going to be able to put a name to the face and tell them what his story is.

Everyone has a story, some he doesn't want to hear, some he wants to know just so he can determine the best possible way to destroy them.

Jason doesn't leave, just makes himself comfortable on Sonny's couch and Sonny doesn't tell him to go, to take care of Carly and Michael.

He lets him sit there and he goes back upstairs to where Olivia is lying in his bed staring at the wall.

"I should have homeschooled him," she says as soon as he walks through the door. "Remember, we talked about that."

"He would have hated that," Sonny says. He toes off his shoes and folds his jacket over the back of a chair then climbs into the bed beside her. Pulling her back against him, hand on her hip, lips against the back of her neck.

The knot in his stomach loosens at bit and he nuzzles the side of her jaw.

He has Olivia here, finally and he'll have Dante here sooner rather then later.

"I don't know what to do," Olivia says softly, her voice is thick and he can tell that she's crying again.

"Just lie here with me for a few minutes," Sonny says. "We're going to lie here and we're going to breathe then we're going to get up and find our boy."

Olivia's hair brushes against his jaw line as she nods.

"Okay."

**OF + SC = DF**

"His name is Andrew Warren," Mac says. "He's a convicted pedophile and he's registered as a sex offender."

"You're sure?" Sonny asks, he thinks he asks, there's no one else in the room but him and Mac, the question had to have come from his lips. Except there's a disconnect happening at the moment from his brain and the world around him.

This man, has his son, might be… his mind skitters away from that thought. Dante is strong and smart and this isn't going to end with them putting Dante in therapy for nine hundred years, they're going to find Dante and those other two boys before it even becomes an issue.

"Pictures match up," Mac nods. "We're searching the properties that he has listed; he has two that we know about…"

"Did he kill the boys that he got put away for the first time?" Sonny asks and he closes his eyes when he sees Mac shake his head.

**OF + SC = DF**

He has a bunch of people searching; if Andrew Warren had two properties then he could just as easily have three or four.

He'd need somewhere quiet to stash the boys, somewhere that no one would hear them scream, because he knows Dante's not there willingly and he's pretty sure that neither are the other two boys.

Jason flashes a piece of paper at him, a street address and Sonny nods. Olivia is curled up on the couch, eyes watching him intently.

"Go, bring our baby home."

**OF + SC = DF**


	3. Chapter 3

**Family Ties – 3**

When he comes to he can feel cool metal around one wrist, he pulls, yanks futilely on it and there's no give.

"Shh," he hears and he stops moving, doesn't even breathe.

He chances a glance to the left and sees nothing, to the right he sees another boy, about his age, he squints because he's pretty sure that's…

"Tyler?" he whispers.

"Shh," is the only response and the door to the room rattles and he closes his eyes, slumps against the wall.

His skin crawls and he can feel eyes on him even though his are closed.

He concentrates on breathing evenly and not moving a muscle when he feels a hand brush against his face, trace over his lips. He doesn't shudder in revulsion; he can hear the sounds the man is making, feel the movements of something.

He thinks the guy is jerking off while he traces fingers over his face and he can't…

He plays unconscious and the guy doesn't go to Tyler so he's pretty sure that Tyler is doing the same.

He can hear the low groan and feels something wet on his t-shirt, he almost gags, forces himself not to because if this guy thinks he's conscious he might do a lot worse to him then jerk off while he feels up his face.

The guy presses his lips to Dante's, tongue tracing over them and sighs against his skin before standing. There's silence for a few seconds and then the sound of a door closing.

His eyes snap open and he doesn't look down at the t-shirt that is now destined for the burn pile, he knows what he'll see and he's going to deal with it later.

Much, much later.

He yanks on the chain around his wrist; his other arm is pretty useless, his first assessment that it was probably broken is almost certainly correct.

There's a little bit of give, it's not very well secured to the wall and he wonders if some other boy had been chained to this wall and tried pulling and twisting on it to get free, it's loose regardless and he twists his body, pushing his feet against the wall and pulling and yanking with all his might.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asks, he sounds tired, scared.

"There's some give, I think I can," Dante yanks, winds the chain around his hand so he has something to grip and pulls.

It doesn't end like this.

**OF + SC = DF**

The house is quiet, just like Jason sitting next to him. Just like Max and Milo in the front of the car.

"Sir?" Max asks.

Sonny stares at the house, there's a gun in his lap,

"Sonny?" Jason asks, he's got one hand on the door, waiting for the go ahead.

"Okay," Sonny says.

He opens his own door, keeps his gun in hand. If he finds the son of a bitch who took his boy… he's not a good man, the thoughts racing through his head are not good thoughts.

He should be calling the cops, the FBI. Should be telling Mac and his contacts where he is and where his son is.

But all he can think is this man has already got put away once for taking boys, for…

He already got put away once, now he has two murder charges to add to that and he's a repeat offender and he's probably going to go away for a really long time.

If he's harmed Dante in anyway, he won't have to worry about going away because Sonny is going to kill him.

**OF + SC = DF**

The bolt securing the chain to the wall pulls free and Dante wants to cry, is just getting ready to turn to Tyler and has his mouth open to say, he's not even sure, because the door flies open and a man is standing there.

"What was that…" he starts and Dante runs for him, he still has the chain gripped in his hand, hasn't released it yet and he punches him. He's infuriated, angry and scared and the guy is on the ground and he only stops because Tyler calling his name breaks through the haze of red that he's seeing.

He stands up and he's panting, one hand clenched at his side the other arm held close to his body. It's starting to throb and ache again.

"Does he have keys on him?" Tyler asks, his voice is insistent and he's pulling on the chain still securing him to the wall like he can pull himself free.

Dante looks between the man on the ground and Tyler, he so doesn't want to touch this guy, but the alternative is leaving Tyler chained to the wall and eventually the guy is going to wake up. Dante can see his chest rising and falling and if he wakes up and Tyler is still there…

Tyler won't be there, he bends and pats down the guys pockets, not touching him anymore then he has to.

He finds the keys finally in an inside pocket on the guys jacket, it's a dress coat, like something he's seen his dad wear. He turns back to Tyler, who's still twisting and pulling on the chain almost absently, his hands are shaking and he's tired and his arm and shoulder are screaming at him in pain, he fumbles with the keys as he tries to fit them into the lock keeping the chain around Tyler's wrist.

Tyler shakes them off and is on his feet and through the door in an instant.

"Let's put him in the room," Dante says.

"Let's _go_," Tyler says insistently.

"If we put him in the room we can lock the door," Dante says tiredly, "it'll buy us some time if we can't figure out how the hell to get out of here."

Tyler looks at him and Dante hunches his shoulders, finally Tyler nods and they sort of roll the guy into the room, they're not all that careful but Dante's arm is maybe broken and in the light from the hallway he can see a bruise on Tyler's face, he doesn't think either of them much care. Dante pushes the door closed with his shoulder, and Tyler fastens the padlock and kicks the door viciously once it's locked.

"Alright, can we go _now_?" Tyler asks, he's almost vibrating with the same need that Dante is feeling; get out, get free, get _home_. His mom's got to be losing her mind and there's no way that she hasn't called his dad already.

He stays right beside him though and they're trying to be quiet, just in case the guy wasn't alone.

He sees the light of flashlights ahead of them and they plaster themselves to the walls, Tyler is making a high-pitched whining noise and Dante would tell him to shut the hell up but he thinks that people in other states can hear his breathing.

It almost stops when the flashlights come closer, when he realizes who's there.

"Dad," he breathes out, that's his dad; his dad came for him like he always said he would if something ever happened and the flashlights stop moving, there's four of them and Dante stumbles forward.

"Dante," his dad's voice is just as soft, stunned almost and then his father is pulling him into his arms and Dante is fighting to not scream or pass out or throw up as his arm, the one that he thinks is broken is pushed between his body and his dads.

He can't quite disguise the fact that something isn't right though and his dad backs off, his hands don't let go of him, just let him move back enough so there's a sliver of space.

"His arm," Tyler says, the flashlights all swing in his direction and Dante hopes he doesn't look as bad as Tyler does, though he's pretty sure he does. There's dried come on his shirt and his arm is broken and his dad is going to fucking murder someone he's sure.

"Are you okay?" the one guy standing next to his dad says, he's young, maybe in his mid-twenties or so. Dante thinks he might be Jason Morgan, Dante's heard all about Jason since his dad started working in Port Charles.

"Yeah," Tyler says, he rubs a hand over his face and Dante looks away, leans forward and rests his forehead against his dads shoulder.

"But his arm," Tyler waves his hand at him, "I think it's probably broken, he's been holding it pretty tight."

"Where is he now?" his dad asks and his voice, Dante didn't think you could actually hear the sound of _murder_ in someone's voice but that's what he thinks he's hearing in his dads right then.

"Why don't you worry about getting your son and Mr….?" a voice comes from behind them and there's more flashlights and uniforms and these guys look like cops.

"Tyler, he's Tyler," Dante says into his dad's coat.

"Hello Tyler," the voice comes closer and Dante can see over his dads shoulder that it's Mac Scorpio, he's met him only a handful of times, and he doesn't touch him, just assesses the situation in front of him.

"There's an ambulance outside," Mac says. "There's only the two of them?"

"There was another boy, he was there when he grabbed me, but he disappeared right before he brought Dante in, I don't…" Tyler shakes his head. "I've not seen him since."

"Alright, Sonny why don't you get these two boys out of here," Mac says, there's an unspoken conversation passing between Mac and his dad, from the way that his dad frowns Dante thinks that Mac pretty much just refused to allow his dad to kill anyone.

"Dante knocked him out with his chain," Tyler says, Dante lifts one wrist to show the chain still attached and his dad makes a noise that sounds like a growl, he'd been more concerned with getting out of the room and away, and he still has the keys to unlock them he just was going to wait until they were out of wherever they are to get rid of them. "He's locked in the room that we were locked in."

**OF + SC = DF**

Sonny wants to kill someone, but instead he's gripping his son's good hand (he wants to maim someone, his son has a _good _hand and a broken arm and bruises and something on his shirt that he's trying to think about because when he does his mind veers back to _murder_ again) while the doctor sets the arm and talks about casts and clean breaks.

Dante's not saying anything, just squeezing his hand every so often as the doctor fiddles around.

"I'll get you something for the pain," the doctor says, Dante manages an upward quirk of the lips that might, in some small foreign country that doesn't allow it, _might_ be considered a smile.

He touches his forehead, smoothes back his hair and tells himself that his son is fine, he's in a hospital bed and he's got doctors and nurses taking care of him. He's got Sonny right beside him and Olivia is on her way and Jason's at the door and his back.

Dante's okay.

**OF + SC = DF**

Carly and Michael are at the apartment when he gets home, he's got Milo and Max with him and he'd left Jason at the door of Dante's room watching over Dante and Olivia.

He feels dirty, and he doesn't touch Carly but he tousles Michael's hair.

"I thought…" Carly starts.

"I have to go back to the hospital," Sonny says. He'd only come home because Dante had insisted that he needed to and Olivia had concurred, when they gang up on him like that he's hard pressed to say no to them.

But he'd never said how long he would stay away, so he's planning to shower and change and maybe have a stiff drink, then go back to the hospital and wait until it's time to bring Dante home.

They want to keep him overnight for observation.

Sonny thinks he can be observed just as fine by Olivia and himself and Jason and Max and Milo at the penthouse.

"Michael wanted to see you," Carly says, Michael glances up at his mother then over at Sonny.

"Mom said I have a brother now," Michael says, he's biting his lip and giving Sonny that look that he gets when he's not sure he's going to like how these things are going to affect him.

"His name is Dante," Sonny says, he sets a hand on Michael's head and kneels so he's looking directly at him. "I think you'll like him."

Michael looks at him then back at Carly.

"Mom said he was hurt," he says and Sonny nods, his eyes narrow over Michael's shoulder at Carly and she's got her arms crossed over chest like she's waiting for Sonny to call her out on this.

"He's going to be fine though," he says. "He's in the hospital and his mom is there with him, and Jason's keeping watch over them."

"Then he'll be okay," Michael nods once. His faith in the power of mom's and Jason is almost completely unbreakable. "Will I get to meet him?"

"When we bring him home tomorrow," Sonny says. "You'll be one of the first people I introduce him to."

Michael beams at him.

**OF + SC = DF**

His mom is sleeping, leaning forward on the bed, head resting on her arms. He shifts, then shifts again, his arm is propped up on a pillow and the pain killers that the doctor had given him are starting to wear off because it's beginning to throb in time with his heartbeat.

He wants to stay awake though, wait for his dad to come back. He knows him well enough, even though he doesn't get to see him that often, that he knows he'll maybe shower and change before he comes back.

Jason is standing in the doorway, periodically he'll look over at him then away.

"You can pull up a chair or something," Dante says, Jason just looks at him, expression inscrutable. "No, really," he says insistently. "Because you standing there like that is like having a human gargoyle hovering in my doorway, and also it's kind of freaky, like if I tried to leave the room would you tackle me or something?"

Jason raises an eyebrow but pulls a chair up next to the doorway, inside it not outside like he'd thought he'd do. He wonders if it's because there's two uniformed cops strolling up and down the hallway, they keep eying Jason like they'd like nothing more than to tackle _him_ and slap handcuffs around his wrist even though he's just been standing there.

Dante has to wonder how Jason will react when his dad is finally able to come clean.

"You can ask you know," Dante says, Jason just looks at him, face inscrutable.

He wants him to like him, his dad likes Jason, trusts him, Dante wants to as well.

"Why'd he keep you guys secret?" Jason asks. Dante wonders if he's imagining the hint of betrayal that he thinks he's hearing in Jason's voice.

Probably not.

"He wanted to protect us," Dante says. It's what he always says when someone asks about his dad, 'he left to protect us', or variations on the theme depending on who he's talking to.

Frankie knew about his dad, he might not have known everything but Frankie knew who his dad was. It was probably really hard to mask with his dad threatening him every time he came into town if he even thought about touching Dante.

If his dad only knew.

**OF + SC = DF**


	4. Chapter 4

Author Note: I apologize for the delay; we should be getting back to a semi-normal posting schedule now that my bandom big bang story is done.

Enjoy!

**Family Ties – 4**

Jason is sitting right inside the door when he gets back and Dante is mumbling, eyes heavy.

He's fighting sleep, when he was a baby he'd do the same thing, fight it with every fiber of his being, babbling in his baby talk at them and fussing and moving until it finally pulled him under. Then he'd be out for at least seven hours, they never managed eight. But seven was pretty much unheard of, friends with kids had been completely jealous of them.

Sonny exchanges a look with Jason and Jason just shrugs.

"He told me to," he says and Sonny looks over at Dante.

"He was like a gargoyle, dad," Dante says, his voice sounds heavy. "Standing in the doorway, hovering, I kept expecting to look and he'd be like made of stone or something."

"They gave him some more pain meds," Jason says, he looks as amused as he gets.

"They're awesome," Dante grins sleepily at him. "Except they make me tired and I wanted to wait for you to come back."

"He's been telling me about his classes to keep himself awake; he really hates his English teacher."

"She's making us read stuff that I read two years ago, though half the class evidently didn't read it then so it's probably not a bad thing except she never asks _them _for character motivations or underlying themes, she asks me or Theresa or Scott and why doesn't she ask one of the kids that's _not_ reading it again this time."

"Maybe she doesn't want to waste time on the kids that don't have any interest in the material," Sonny says, he hides his grin and leans downs to kiss Olivia's temple, she stirs slightly but doesn't wake. Then lays a hand on top of her head.

"_I _don't have any interest in the material," Dante mutters, he sounds sullen and cross and every inch the sixteen year old boy that he is; though he has to wonder why _this _is what Dante is choosing to worry about.

Books and classes and teachers forcing him to have interest in things that he doesn't want to have interest in.

Instead of the fact that a man grabbed him off a street and broke his arm and had him chained in a dark, dank room and would have kept him there if Dante wasn't both his father and mother's son and fought his own way free.

He touches Dante's forehead with the other, just making sure he's there, giving himself a physical reminder that his son is safe and there and out of harms way for the moment. He's warm, but that might be from the blankets and the fact that he should be sleeping not babbling about English.

"You can sleep now," he says softly and he keeps watch while Dante lets his eyes flutter closed and his face goes lax in sleep.

**OF + SC = DF**

His mom is hovering right at his elbow; he hates it even though he allows it. He's tired and he's achy and his arm is throbbing with an edge of burning. He wishes that he'd hit the guy harder with his chains, and maybe kicked him a few times.

Why should he be the only one in pain?

They wheel him out in a wheelchair, his dad behind the wheel and his mom walking beside him with her hand on his shoulder. Jason is on the other side of the dad though slightly further back. A faithful guard dog and Dante glares at the cast on one arm and clenches the fingers of the other into a fist.

He wants to go home.

He wants to burrow into his bedroom and not come out until Frankie comes by to coax him into watching TV or his gram makes her nine layer lasagna from scratch.

He can hear his mom and dad talking quietly, no distinct words though Dante gets the drift, there's not going to be any going home in his foreseeable future. Unless he gets to call wherever his dad lives in Port Charles home.

That little life that him and his mom lived where they didn't have to acknowledge the truth of what his dad was doing is pretty much over with. They're known to the other families now and he knows enough about how things work, mostly from old mob movies but also from listening to the guys in the neighborhood talk, that if his dad sends them away it'll be to an uninhabited island on the freaking moon.

They're targets now.

And his dad can't protect them if he sends them away.

**OF + SC = DF**

Dante is not happy about the decision to relocate to Port Charles if the silent treatment they're getting as a group, Jason included, is any indication. Sonny doesn't think any of them has actually told him what the plan is. He glances over at Olivia and she shakes her head at him, her hand comes off Dante's shoulder and wraps around his arm.

"He's sixteen," she says softly. "He's old enough to read between the lines."

Sonny frowns and focuses on the top of his son's bent head.

"I just want to keep the both of you safe," he says, he glances over at Jason, Jason looks back with an inscrutable expression, he has a stack of cards in one hand. Seven of them are from the leaders of families that four days ago didn't know that Dante or Olivia even existed.

"It doesn't have to mean we like what that's going to mean for us," Olivia says, she squeezes his arm, he looks over at her and she's not looking at him anymore. He stills sees her though, and he really doesn't like what he's seeing.

Circles under her eyes already, worry lining her face. She'd admitted back at the beginning that she hadn't been going to tell him about Dante; that she'd been mad about him taking up with Connie and she'd all but decided to keep the fact that she was pregnant to herself.

That she hadn't liked the direction his life was taking and if she couldn't keep _him_ from heading into the life she sure as hell could keep their child as far away from it as humanly possible.

He doesn't like to think about where they would be if her brother hadn't taken matters into his own hands. The thought of not having them, of not even _knowing _about Dante, about having never seen him take his first steps or hear his first words… those are not thoughts that he likes to entertain; sometimes he gets angry that if a different choice had been made that Olivia would have taken the choice of seeing those things out of his hands

"You're targets now," Sonny says. He doesn't like it; it doesn't mean that it's not the truth.

There's two cards in that pile in Jason's hand from the Zacchara's. One from Anthony and one from Johnny and Claudia.

Sonny doesn't know what it means, though he thinks that the hints that Zacchara has been tossing around about a possible uniting of their two fronts might become more then hints.

The thought of his sixteen year-old son tied in some way to either Claudia or Johnny doesn't sit well, Claudia is a viper in training and Johnny is learning at the knee of his father.

**OF + SC = DF**

There's a woman and a boy at his fathers place when they get there, he's feeling tired and cranky and completely not up to dealing with more people.

Everyone seems to know them but him and he wants to scowl and mutter and go hide in whatever room has been designated as his.

Of course then the boy has to smile at him, the woman has a hand on his shoulder and the smile on _her _face doesn't reach her eyes, but the boy is just _beaming_ at him like meeting Dante is the best thing that's ever happened to him.

In the face of that Dante has to smile back and he grudgingly lets go of a little of his black mood in the face of this little boy and his pure joy at seeing him.

"Hi," the boy says, he can see the woman's hand squeeze when it looks like the boy is going to move forward. "_Mom_."

"Sorry sweetie," the woman says and she doesn't sound apologetic and Dante really doesn't like the way that she's studying him like he's some sort of rodent that she's gotta figure out how to kill and dispose of properly.

"Hey," he waves the hand not in a cast at the boy.

"I'm Michael," the boy says, he shakes the woman's hand off and comes forward, he's all straight posture and a serious expression and the kid, Michael, he keeps darting his eyes over at his dad like he's making sure that what he's doing is acceptable. Dante can see his father smiling a small smile of approval.

It hits him then that if this is Michael, the little boy who isn't really a brother but kind of is by virtue of the fact that his dad has claimed him, that the woman must be Carly.

He's heard his mom go on and on about Carly when she hadn't know he was listening.

"Dante," he says and he shakes Michael's hand.

**OF + SC = DF**

Dante's sleeping, curled up in a ball on his bed looking impossibly small and young. Olivia sits on the edge carefully, his eyes open, blink at her twice as he makes sure that someone is there, then they close as he falls back into a restless sleep, making a soft huffing noise as he pulls his broken arm closer to him.

She has to keep reminding herself that he's okay, that he's safe, that's he's _home_, even if this isn't the home that he wants to be at. She makes a mental note to call the DelVecchio's and let them know that Dante's safe.

She's sure that word has spread through the neighborhood already, but it doesn't hurt to extend that courtesy to them. Dante and Frankie are close; the best of friends and he at least deserves to hear that Dante is okay from her if not from Dante himself.

She brushes the tips of her fingers over Dante's forehead, smoothing down hair and his nose wrinkles at her. She presses her lips to the tips of her fingers and then to his cheek.

Behind her she can hear the door opening, a quiet sound and she turns to see Carly standing there, she stands, tucks Dante's blanket more firmly around him and walks towards her. She can see Carly's mouth open and she presses a finger to her lips in the universal sound of 'shh'.

Carly rolls her eyes but backs into the hallway; Olivia pulls the door closed behind her and then crosses her arms over her chest. A movement that Carly duplicates.

"I thought we should talk," Carly says finally, "About Sonny and Michael." Olivia purses her lips and nods once then gestures for Carly to move down the hallway.

When they're in the living room, sitting at opposite ends of the couch she wonders if she could be this hospitable if it were Brenda or Lily sitting there.

There are three women that her husband has been involved with since he started this job and even though she's told him that it's okay, she always wonders if _this _is going to be the woman that takes him from her and Dante.

She thinks that the day that he stops asking for her forgiveness for every woman that he has to touch or take to his bed because of what he's doing is day that she'll have to make the hard decisions.

Until then every time he comes to her with the name of another woman he's touched she offers her forgiveness and her love and hides, probably badly, the little parts of her that die because of it.

She should have stuck to her guns those years before, should have told him what she'd planned on telling him, that she didn't know who Dante's father was, that she'd been sleeping around just as much as _he'd_ been sleeping around.

Of course then he'd _really_ be in the family instead of play-acting while they to bring the family's down, but she wouldn't have to live with the constant fear that she's going to lose him to somebody who professes to understand his life more then she can.

She understands, she just doesn't want to.

"Sonny has claimed Michael as his," she says, she hopes she sounds gracious, she hopes she can afford to be. Sonny hasn't asked her forgiveness in months and she sees no evidence that regardless of how much time Carly spends at the penthouse that she actually lives there. "I don't see any reason why he shouldn't spend time with him."

Carly looks at her and it's a calculating look. "People are going to wonder how you can stay with him after…" she waves at herself, probably means to encompass Brenda and Lily in with it. Or maybe not, maybe Brenda and Lily don't even register as points that Carly feels she needs to worry herself with considering they're not there and she is.

"I know my husband," she leans forward, like she's getting ready to share some confidence. "Just because he fucked you, or them, doesn't mean that at the end of the day he didn't go into a bathroom and scrub himself clean and then call me to tell me he did it. That he didn't call to talk to his son and let him tell him all about his day."

Carly looks at her and her eyes narrow slightly. "And you're not threatened by that at all."

"I'm human," Olivia laughs, she's sure that Carly can hear the bitterness in it. "Of _course_ I'm threatened by that, but the fact of the matter is, Sonny is married to me, and if you know even the first thing about Sonny Corinthos it's that he doesn't take marriage lightly, he wouldn't have put this ring on my finger if he didn't feel that we were going to make it through whatever trials and tribulations were going to be thrown at us."

"He's claimed Michael as his son, we all know that he's not, but he's said he is and I have no issues with Sonny spending time with Michael. I have no issues with Michael spending time with Dante if they so choose to," Olivia stands and walks over to the bar, there's an assortment of alcohol there, but there's also several bottles of water and she takes one, twists the caps off.

"What I _won't_ stand for is you using Michael as a way to stay close to my husband, no child should be used in that manner and if you try…" Olivia doesn't finish the sentence, just turns and looks at her and Carly doesn't say anything just purses her lips and nods her head stiffly.

"Then we understand each other," Olivia smiles brightly, she knows that it doesn't reach her eyes.

It's not meant to.

**OF + SC = DF**

"I like her," Carly says the moment that Jason lets himself into his apartment, she sounds grudging about it, like she doesn't want to but can't help herself.

"She seems nice enough," Jason says. She seems like a mom, and Dante seems like a good kid, he's still not sure why Sonny felt the need to hide them.

But he can understand wanting to protect your family, the thought of Emily or Monica seeing or being around some of the things that he sees…

If Sonny thought that Olivia and Dante were in any sort of danger he would have stayed away to protect them.

He can't now though, every family knows about them, now he's going to have to protect them by keeping them close. Somehow Jason doesn't think that Sonny's going to have any issues with that.

"She's got balls," Carly says. "And she stands up for herself. I don't see us being best buddies but…"

"You talked to her about Michael?"

"She said that she didn't have any issues with Sonny seeing him," that's relief in Carly's voice; she wants a dad for Michael. Sonny's the best possible one, and he already adores the boy.

"Well that's good then," Jason says, he thinks Michael's endless enthusiasm and happiness might be good for Dante at this point as well.

More then that he thinks that the boys might actually be good for each other.

**OF + SC = DF**


	5. Chapter 5

Author Note: I'm so sorry for the delay, I really have no excuse other then I was working on other stuff. Some of which will make it up on at some point.

Enjoy! And as always, feedback is loved.

**Family Ties – 5**

His dad enrolls him in school; they don't talk about it other than his parents saying that he's going to PC High and that he won't be going home any time soon. They don't ask his opinion on the matter, he could stay with Uncle Vito or his Grams and he thinks about saying that but his father has his 'don't argue with me' face on and his mom his biting her lip and nodding in agreement with everything he says.

So he doesn't offer up Uncle Vito or Grams, and he grudgingly goes shopping for new school supplies with his mom and Max.

He knows he's going to hate it. The only good thing about school in Bensonhurst had been Frankie and Lydia, and half the time Frankie hadn't even gone and Lydia was all pissed off at him right before…

His mind skitters away from that thought.

"You have everything?" his mom asks, he rolls his eyes, there's a backpack slung over his shoulder, new and barely broken in, there's new pencils and pens and notebooks and folders and he wants his old beat up backpack that half the time wouldn't zip shut but he's pretty sure that's either in police evidence or in a trashcan somewhere.

"I've got it," he says.

"How about your pills?" she runs a hand over his head, smoothing down his hair and he wrinkles his nose at her.

"I took one already, I shouldn't need one again until later," Dante says.

"You should take them with you just in case," she glances around, Max is waiting at the door to take him to school.

"If I take them I have to give them over to the nurse," Dante says, then he'll have to explain why he has to take them and then it'll be all over his new school before second period that he was one of those kids that got grabbed by the sicko pervert that killed a couple of other boys.

The cast he can explain away, if they know the _whole_ story…

He'd rather be the new kid, certainly doesn't want to be labeled the damaged goods kid even though he knows that eventually the whole story will make the papers. When it does he doesn't think it's irrational to want Frankie and Lydia there for buffer.

"If you need to come home," his mom starts.

"It'll be fine," he promises. He doesn't even think he's lying to her.

**OF + SC = DF**

Everyone is staring at him as Max walks behind him into the school, they whisper behind raised hands and the hallway is crowded so he keeps his casted arm tucked tight against his body. There's a lot of kids and they're all looking at him or moving around him in the hallway.

Maybe he should have given it a couple more days. A week, a month. Maybe his mom and dad would be open to home schooling.

Max steers him in the direction of the front office and has a whispered conversation with a secretary. An older man comes out of the back office and Dante's been in enough Principal office's sitting side by side with Frankie to know what one looks like.

"You must be Dante Corinthos," he says, his voice is loud and carries and pretty much anyone that wasn't already sneaking him looks starts blatantly staring at him.

"Falconeri," he says, the Principal looks at him with a confused expression on his face. "My name is Dante Falconeri, my mom…" he bites his lip and shifts on his feet.

"Ms. Swarthout has your schedule here," the Principal says, he's still looking at Dante with some small measure of confusion. Dante could really just explain that because of the line of business that his father is in that his parents had decided that Dante should carry Olivia's family name instead of Sonny's.

He doesn't really have the energy to though.

Maybe once this is all over with his name _will_ change, like everything else in his life that's changing; and there's some, small part of him that kind of _wants_ to be Dante Corinthos, proof in the form of a name that he has a dad and that dad actually _wants _him back.

"Elizabeth?" the Principal calls and a young woman appears to the left, she's wearing baggy pants and a long-sleeved shirt, her arms are wrapped around her books and they're pulled tight against her chest.

"Why don't you show Mr.… Falconeri around, show him how to read his class schedule and make sure he knows where his locker is."

"Yes, sir."

Max takes the schedule from the secretary and does a quick glance at it before he hands it over to Dante, Dante is 99% sure that if his dad doesn't already have a copy of his schedule that he'll have one as soon as Max takes up position at his side once more.

"Jason will pick you up out front at 2:50," Max says and Dante nods.

He claps Dante on the shoulder and grins, "I'm supposed to tell you to have a good day at school and call if you need anything."

"It'll be fine," Dante shrugs, "it's school."

He doesn't say 'what could go wrong' even though it's on the tip of his tongue, because why jinx himself.

**OF + SC = DF**

It takes 97 minutes, almost the length of one and a half classes for someone to say, "You're Sonny Corinthos' son."

He rolls his eyes. "Sonny Corinthos is my dad, yeah."

"But you don't use his name," the kid continues. "Why not?"

"Would you in this town if you had another option," the kid looks at him then shrugs.

"Good point," the kid holds out his hand and grins at him, "Lucky Spencer."

"Dante," he says.

"We know," Lucky says and Dante blinks at the 'we' until he notices another young man, dark hair, dark eyes, and a young woman standing beside Elizabeth. "You should come have lunch with us."

"I'm not supposed to go off campus unless I call…" Dante starts patting his pockets looking for the new cell phone that his mom had given him that morning to replace the one that the pervert who grabbed him had destroyed.

"We're just going down to Kelly's," Elizabeth says softly. She doesn't have any books in her arms, though she appears to be clinging to her bag pretty tightly. Dante's sure there's a story there, and he's equally sure that it's not one that'll be shared with him any time soon.

**OF + SC = DF**

They're having a quick bite when Dante comes in, he's got Lucky Spencer on one side and Emily Quartermaine on the other, Nikolas Cassadine and Elizabeth Webber follow on their heels.

Lucky appears to be telling a story, hands waving, as they come in.

Sonny raises an eyebrow and waits for Dante to notice him.

When he does he stops dead in his tracks, Lucky shoots him a confused look until he sees Sonny and Jason sitting there, he makes a face but smiles. Lucky doesn't really like Jason, Sonny's pretty sure that's because of the badly disguised crush that Elizabeth appears to have on him.

"I called mom," Dante says when he approaches them, the others don't follow, he pats the pocket that Sonny figures he has his cellphone in.

"You should have called me, or Jason," Sonny says. Dante's in Port Charles now and Sonny has a lot of enemies that would be willing to go through his son to get to him. He'll have a lot more in a few months and he's been thinking seriously about Witness Protection for both Olivia and Dante once it's done.

"I called mom," Dante says again, he pulls his casted arm across his chest and wrinkles his brow at him. "And I was with a group, you said that as long as I was with a group that had more than two people…"

Sonny remembers that conversation, it was one they'd had back in Bensonhurst when Sonny had thought he could protect Dante and Olivia from the fall out of his choices by just not bringing them to Port Charles and putting them in a position where he would need to protect them in the first place.

He'd forgotten that there are other evils in the world, and the majority of them he has little to no control over.

"We're going to order," Lucky says, he appears on Dante's left and Sonny looks and sees that while Dante's been defending his decision to not call him when he left the school that Nikolas and Lucky had pulled two tables side by side and Nikolas and the girls are already sitting.

They're very pointedly not looking in their direction; Sonny thinks they might be talking about the weather.

"Okay, I'll see you after school?" Dante asks, Sonny nods.

"I'm making pasta and garlic bread," Sonny says. It's one of Dante's comfort meals, and like clockwork Dante's eyes light up, some of the darkness, some of the dullness that has been ever present since they got him back dimming.

"With the good sauce?" Dante asks.

"Is there any other kind?" Sonny says, Lucky just looks between them and then heads over to the tables, Dante gives him a half grin and follows.

"At least he's making friends," Jason says. His fingers are wrapped around his glass and his expression is neutral.

Sonny gives a slight incline of his head that indicates that he heard, he doesn't voice the thought that Dante making friends hadn't really been his priority.

**OF + SC = DF**

He calls Frankie when he gets to the penthouse.

He can't call the penthouse home yet; home is the yellow house with white shutters that he's lived in for as long as he can remember with his mother and periodic visits from his father.

It has posters that he's hung on the walls and pictures of his friends tacked up and a dent in the bottom of the door where he got mad and kicked it when his parents ganged up on him and told him he couldn't be friends with Frankie anymore.

The penthouse is new and the room that has been designated as his has nothing that really _is_ his, he's sure that his mom or dad has already sent someone to the yellow house with white shutters to pack up their belongings and bring them here.

Dante doesn't know if hanging up his posters and tacking up his pictures and having his own clothes in the closet will make the penthouse even closer to a home.

It feels cold, he wants his house and his friends.

"So how was it?" Frankie asks by way of greeting, he hears shuffling and a voice and he knows that Lydia is there, the two of them hovering over the phone so they can both hear him.

"It was okay," Dante shrugs, he lies back on his bed, head propped up on two pillows, his old room had glow in the dark stars from when he was a kid and was going through his space phase. He'd outgrown it but the stars hadn't come down.

"Did you meet anyone?" Lydia asks. "Did you make friends?"

"You know…" Dante starts.

"You're stuck there for the foreseeable future," Lydia says sensibly. "Friends will make the fact that you're stuck there suck less."

He hears Frankie make a noise on the other end and Dante knows that in this matter he and Frankie are in perfect agreement.

He doesn't need or want new friends.

He has Frankie and Lydia and that had always been enough for all three of them.

"I met a couple of people," he says, he doesn't know if he'll call Lucky, Nikolas, Emily or Elizabeth friends. But they're companions and at the very least he won't have to eat lunch by himself.

Or risk being called the anti-social mobsters kid and have every looking at him like they expect him to bring a gun to school.

"We were thinking about coming up this weekend," Frankie says. "Do you think your dad will flip completely out if we do?"

"I think as long as you guys don't decide to stay overnight they won't really care," Dante thinks. Though his dad sort of unreasonably, in his opinion, doesn't like Frankie, so he could be really wrong about that.

"Your mom called to tell us that you were okay, but we'd kind of like to see for ourselves," Lydia says softly.

"I'm okay," Dante says. He doesn't tell them about the bruises and the broken arm and the fact that so far he hasn't been able to sleep through the night without some sort of help; they'll find out about the bruises and the broken arm. And by the time one of them will be in the position to know about the other thing he's hoping that it'll be a non-issue.

"Well we'll judge that for ourselves," Frankie mutters and Lydia makes sound that speaks of agreement.

Dante grins.

"I miss you guys."

**OF + SC = DF**

Johnny knows what his father wants him to do. And it's not like he's shy about his sexuality or about any of the partners his father knows (and doesn't know) about. But there's a line that has to be drawn and he draws it at seducing a sixteen year-old kid.

Especially since he knows that sixteen year-old kid has just gone through hell and back and is probably considering hiding under a rock a valid life-style choice.

Claudia wouldn't have a problem seducing the boy, Dante, but Claudia isn't there at the moment, there's just Johnny and his dad and his dads plots and plans.

Still, even though Johnny refuses to take the kid to his bed and fuck him up even more then he probably already is, he can't completely ignore the fact that even a friendship would go a long way in solidifying some sort of alliance between their families.

So he's been watching the kid, trying to get a feel for how to approach him without looking like some sort of psycho pervert himself. He's not being as discreet as he should be, he knows this, but he also kind of _wants_ the kid to notice him. He's not much for subtle, has never really seen a point to being subtle.

Begin subtle doesn't get you want you want has been his experience. So he's there and pretty blatant about the fact that he's watching Dante. And he's waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Dante to notice him blatantly watching him.

And he does, finally, about four days after Johnny starts showing up at Kelly's to watch him interact with his new friends at both lunchtime and after school time. Dante corners him outside Kelly's, Johnny looks through the window and sees Dante's new friends at their usual table, Dante's usual chair next to Lucky empty, then Dante latches onto his arm with the hand not in the cast (strong grip, Johnny thinks idly) and drags him away.

"Look, I've already done the pervert pedo thing, I really don't need a repeat performance," Dante says, just spits it out and he sounds like Sonny when he's really mad.

All stiff voice and barely veiled anger that needs about 30 more seconds before hell hath no fury and fire and brimstone starts raining down. _His _dad _delights _in making Sonny lose that composure.

"I'm not looking for you to repeat it either," Johnny shakes his head. He's not going to lie to the kid (not yet at least, maybe in a few years) he's probably got enough people lying to him or telling him half truths in the vein of protecting him.

"Then the whole stalker thing needs to really be done, you stop I don't tell my dad and find out if he really makes people swim with the fishes or if those were just stories that he told Frankie and me to scare us."

"Your dad does make people swim with the fishes," Johnny smirks. "But then so does my dad so we've got that in common."

Dante blinks at him, eyes narrowing. Johnny's grin gets a little wider, wilder. He'd kind of figured that Sonny would have sat the kid down with a stack of pictures and a lecture on these are the people that you should run away from if you ever see them.

"Johnny Zacchara," he says, he holds out his hand and Dante looks at it then up at him and back again before he takes it.

**OF + SC = DF**


End file.
